Firefighters have nearly contained a 65-acre wildfire started by lightning on Wednesday, Sept. 11, on private rangeland about 7 miles north of Durkee, on the west side of Little Lookout Mountain.

The Judd Creek Fire was reported about 6:30 p.m., said Larisa Bogardus, public affairs specialist for the Bureau of Land Management’s Vale District.

Firefighters built a bulldozer line around the fire by midnight Wednesday. The fire is about 99% on private land, Bogardus said.

One BLM engine, and firefighters from the Burnt River Rangeland Protection Association, are at the fire Thursday morning.

Rain is also helping with the firefighting effort, Bogardus said.

Al Crouch, fire mitigation specialist for the Vale District, called the response to the Judd Creek Fire a “fantastic cooperative effort” that included multiple volunteer fire protection associations and departments as well as the Oregon Department of Forestry and the BLM.

Lightning also started a small fire, which was controlled at one-tenth of an acre, just north of Interstate 84 a few miles southeast of Weatherby on Wednesday, Crouch said.

Lightning also started a small fire on Wednesday in the Crevice Creek area of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest about 6 miles northeast of Sumpter. The fire was contained at one-tenth of an acre.

Weather effects on fire danger

This week’s major shift in the weather pattern, which brought rain as well as the coolest daytime temperatures since mid-June, was “a good thing,” Crouch said.

But the fire danger, though tempered, remains high.

“Fire season is still here — a 65-acre fire proves that,” Crouch said on Thursday morning.

Crouch said BLM officials will meet on Monday, Sept. 16, to discuss the possibility of easing fire restrictions on the Vale District. The National Weather Service is forecasting drier, warmer weather this weekend, but with another similar Pacific storm arriving late in the weekend bringing cooler temperatures, and likely rain, into early next week.

This week’s storm was relatively stingy with its moisture in Baker County, said Cody Kingsbury, wildland fire supervisor for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Baker City.

The highest rain total from remote weather stations was just 0.11 of an inch at Morgan Mountain northwest of Huntington, Kingsbury said.

Some sites both to the north, in Union and Wallowa counties, and to the south, in Malheur County, recorded one-quarter to one-half of an inch of rain.

Harl Butte, in Hells Canyon east of Joseph, measured 0.45 of an inch in 24 hours.

Joel McCraw, assistant fire management officer for the Wallowa-Whitman, called this week’s weather a “season-changing” event rather than a “season-ending” episode.

“It’s been a great help keeping fire spread down,” McCraw said. He noted that although lightning sparked about 20 new fires this week on the Wallowa-Whitman, none burned more than an acre.

But even a few days of hot, dry weather could quickly dry the grass and other fine fuels that can spread fire rapidly, McCraw and Kingsbury said.